Facebook recently announced its updated ‘Shops’ feature for both Facebook and Instagram, which will put more emphasis on eCommerce on each platform, and make it easier for SMBs to upload their catalog and start selling items direct from their posts. 

But the new Shops experience isn’t here just yet, at least for the majority. Facebook’s working on the final details before rolling out the new Shops experience to all businesses, but last week, Facebook’s VP of Marketplace & Payments Deborah Liu answered some questions about the coming update, and what users can expect, which points to some of the requirements and processes that will be in place.

A few key notes:

• Business Pages will get a notification or email when Shops is made available to them
• Shops will be customizable with brand elements
• Product listings will be managed via Commerce Manager
• Shops will be for physical goods only at launch, but Facebook will look to expand into other services, like courses and online offerings, in future
• Shops will be rolling out “over the next several months”

Of course, some businesses can already create Shop type listings on Facebook and Instagram. The new, updated process will look to streamline the process, but to give you an idea of how the system will work, here’s an overview of the current Commerce Manager set-up for selling products in Facebook’s apps (expanded from this overview).

You can check out the Facebook Blueprint course on Commerce Manager for more info.